What did Copernicus believe about the heliocentric model?

Answer 1

Copernicus looked at the planet's movements among the fixed stars, and the Ptolemaic model from ancient times, and considered that it would be simpler to put the Sun at the centre because the paths of the inner planets could be described more simply.

Copernicus model of 1543 used a system of circles and epicycles, as the ancient model had. For the inner planets Copernicus's model used considerably smaller epicycles, so that Mercury, Venus and Mars followed paths that were less convoluted.

Both models described the planets' movements reasonably accurately and there was no way of deciding which was right. But Copernicus's idea of placing the Sun at the centre led Kepler to his model of 1609 which used the new idea of elliptical orbits, which is the model used today.

Answer 2

Copernicus' Heliocentric theory:

Unlike Ptolemy's theory the Earth was not the central body, the sun was. This explains why the planets occasionally appeared to be going backward and how we got from day to night. Copernicus went against everyone else by implying the sun was central. All the planets were revolving around the Sun and the stars stayed stationary.
The Heliocentric theory, laid down by Copernicus, states that the Sun is the center of the Solar system (as opposed to the Earth, which was believed at the time.) This was not widely accepted until Galileo made it public. He proved this by: Observing the moon with a telescope (this showed pock marks by craters, indicating that the heavens were not "perfect" as once before thought) Observing the phases of Venus (just like the phases of the moon, except that the planet's phases and change in apparent size indicated it revolved around something other than the Earth.) Observing the moons of Jupiter. (This showed that the Earth was not unique in that it was orbited by all, but that in fact things orbited other heavenly bodies too.) Although this theory is indeed true, at the time of Galileo it was not widely accepted, as the Church had much control over beliefs at the time. The Church had always firmly believed in a Geocentric (Earth centered) Universe, and was not prepared to change. Galileo was regarded as a Heretic.
The heliocentric model states that the sun is in the center of solar system.
In 1493, Copernicus formally proposed the heliocentric theory (which had been around for much longer, but never held in high regard due to the Ptolemaic model of a geocentric universe and its popularity with religious officials), which contends that the Sun, not the Earth, is at the center of the universe. Today, we know that the Sun is located at the center of our solar system.

Answer 3

The Heliocentric Theory is the theory that states the Earth and planets revolve around a stationary Sun at the center of the solar system. This theory has been proven correct.